This is to say a very big thank you to all those men and women on this forum who are in the rescue services.
Having witnessed, via the frankly brutal Spanish news courage the courageous efforts of your compatriats at Madrid, then I am full of respect for you.
The aftermath of yesterdays air crash at Barajas airport must have been a horrifying thing to deal with. Yet, thanks to many peoples efforts some survived.
We have many close friends working in the airline business in this country (Spain) and I am sure they will echo my thoughts.

My dad was one of those who attended the Heathrow plane crash in the seventies. I know that he found this incident to be one of the more traumatic that he attended, but there were many others. Scraping the remains of a child from a railway line, putting them into a bin liner, and carrying them back the two miles or so to where their ambulance was (the closest they could get) was less newsworthy, but perhaps on a par. These day-to-day occurances usually result in little recognition, and it is only the bigger stories that cause the general public to reflect on the sterling nature of the work of some of our emergency services.

This is to say a very big thank you to all those men and women on this forum who are in the rescue services.Having witnessed, via the frankly brutal Spanish news courage the courageous efforts of your compatriats at Madrid, then I am full of respect for you.
The aftermath of yesterdays air crash at Barajas airport must have been a horrifying thing to deal with. Yet, thanks to many peoples efforts some survived.
We have many close friends working in the airline business in this country (Spain) and I am sure they will echo my thoughts.

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I am one of those highlighted and yes it does sometimes cause bad dreams and personal trauma but someone has to do it.

Given that in Spain all the ambulance services are private companies; a lot of the fire services volunteers. Do you think they are subject to the same self-recommendation I wonder?
Either way to pull char-grilled people out of burning aluminium whilst being bombarded by water takes a certain kind of person. Good luck to them all.

Given that in Spain all the ambulance services are private companies; a lot of the fire services volunteers. Do you think they are subject to the same self-recommendation I wonder?
Either way to pull char-grilled people out of burning aluminium whilst being bombarded by water takes a certain kind of person. Good luck to them all.

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There is no doubt that they do an excellent and brave job and service to us all.

I just wish they didnt get in the way so much.
They can be very excitable,one nearly cutting off my foot once when he placed the 'jaws of life' around my ankle.
If it wasnt for the fact it touched my skin with its cold metal I would be foot loose and appearing in Treasure island as Long John Silver!

Given that in Spain all the ambulance services are private companies; a lot of the fire services volunteers. Do you think they are subject to the same self-recommendation I wonder?
Either way to pull char-grilled people out of burning aluminium whilst being bombarded by water takes a certain kind of person. Good luck to them all.

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There is no doubt that they do an excellent and brave job and service to us all.

I just wish they didnt get in the way so much.They can be very excitable,one nearly cutting off my foot once when he placed the 'jaws of life' around my ankle.If it wasnt for the fact it touched my skin with its cold metal I would be foot loose and appearing in Treasure island as Long John Silver!

Bless em. :thumright:

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I think this is down to over enthusiasm Rod because funnily enough i nearly had my fingers taken off by the safe implement of death whilst trying to remove the roof from a car. I also wish they would ask us first before breaking the glass especially when shards nearly go into the eyes of an 8 year old girl who was distressed enough by the mornings events.

Given that in Spain all the ambulance services are private companies; a lot of the fire services volunteers. Do you think they are subject to the same self-recommendation I wonder?
Either way to pull char-grilled people out of burning aluminium whilst being bombarded by water takes a certain kind of person. Good luck to them all.

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There is no doubt that they do an excellent and brave job and service to us all.

I just wish they didnt get in the way so much.They can be very excitable,one nearly cutting off my foot once when he placed the 'jaws of life' around my ankle.If it wasnt for the fact it touched my skin with its cold metal I would be foot loose and appearing in Treasure island as Long John Silver!

Bless em. :thumright:

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I think this is down to over enthusiasm Rod because funnily enough i nearly had my fingers taken off by the safe implement of death whilst trying to remove the roof from a car. I also wish they would ask us first before breaking the glass especially when shards nearly go into the eyes of an 8 year old girl who was distressed enough by the mornings events.

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These things tend to happen when you over train and dont practice very often!

I used to love Londons Burning when they dished out the 'emergency oxygen' which is of course quite different to the oxygen we use! :thumright:

with you clanky, enjoyed coming home to man a firestation in Leatherhead. But I did see some great things, an ambulance beeping its horn at a local fire station, when the fireman responded, the ambulance crew sticking their fingers up. But I also remember the ambulance stike in the 90s as well.

with you clanky, enjoyed coming home to man a firestation in Leatherhead. But I did see some great things, an ambulance beeping its horn at a local fire station, when the fireman responded, the ambulance crew sticking their fingers up. But I also remember the ambulance stike in the 90s as well.

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Ah,the 'Strike' that never was. 1989.
We were in dispute with management,never went on strike,still reported for duty but were never turned out.

Managements choice not ours.

We had police officers and army guys manning vans and army ambulances etc although we were still there to respond.Crazy situation really.

Sad part of my service so far but it ended up bringing in the advance practices we now have allowing us to give a better clinical service to the public which we wanted in the first place.

I work in Manchester and the ambulance service is under pressure from the sheer volume of calls - it's not unusual to have many outstanding emergency calls on weekend nights for example.

But part of the problem is the public themselves calling for ambulances sometimes for trivial reasons or because they can't be bothered to see their own GP. Typical example, last Saturday in Moss Side went to a 22year old that was 9 weeks pregnant who had been vomiting for a week. "Have you seen your GP?" - reply "No."

Or the 18 year old with a headache. No history of trauma, accident, or any other signs or symptoms. "Have you taken any painkillers?" - "No." :knob:

Sometimes the GPs don't help by refusing to come out and see patients in the first place.

Then there's the icing on the cake - response times. So long as you're there in time allocated by the government it's a tick in the box for the service. Patient wellbeing or outcome isn't measured because that's something that's difficult to measure, but response time is easily measured. The emphasis on response times means many services are now having to resort to using more and more response cars as they can get there quicker. But a car can't transport patients. There's less ambulances available because the crews are being put in cars, so you might call an ambulance, get a paramedic in a car within eight minutes but then have to wait far longer for a 'proper' ambulance to transport you. Just as long as the initial target is met. Crazy.

I work in Manchester and the ambulance service is under pressure from the sheer volume of calls - it's not unusual to have many outstanding emergency calls on weekend nights for example.

But part of the problem is the public themselves calling for ambulances sometimes for trivial reasons or because they can't be bothered to see their own GP. Typical example, last Saturday in Moss Side went to a 22year old that was 9 weeks pregnant who had been vomiting for a week. "Have you seen your GP?" - reply "No."

Or the 18 year old with a headache. No history of trauma, accident, or any other signs or symptoms. "Have you taken any painkillers?" - "No." :knob:

Sometimes the GPs don't help by refusing to come out and see patients in the first place.

Then there's the icing on the cake - response times. So long as you're there in time allocated by the government it's a tick in the box for the service. Patient wellbeing or outcome isn't measured because that's something that's difficult to measure, but response time is easily measured. The emphasis on response times means many services are now having to resort to using more and more response cars as they can get there quicker. But a car can't transport patients. There's less ambulances available because the crews are being put in cars, so you might call an ambulance, get a paramedic in a car within eight minutes but then have to wait far longer for a 'proper' ambulance to transport you. Just as long as the initial target is met. Crazy.

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Agree totally with all you said mate which is why i'm voting with my feet and getting out ASAP. I joined to save lives not to pick up the drunks and psyche patients that the government should be helping. And as for the cars, response times dont get me started!!

I hate to break up a good suckfest, but lets not forget that our Trumptons went on a uneccesary and self serving strike just as the forces were preparing for Telic 1.

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Please dont get me started about the fire service. Yes they see stuff that nobody should see in their lifetime but IMHO overpaid and underworked.

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if anyone is overpaid and underworked its bl**dy footballers and NOT the fire service.....you try runing into a burning building to save some persons life who most probably startd the fire themselves...